It has heretofore been proposed to provide means for utilizing the storage battery of a vehicle as a source of power for auxiliary equipment, such as spotlights, flood lights, soldering irons, etc., essentially only by providing alligator clips on the power cords of the equipment permitting them to be clipped directly to the positive and negative terminals of the battery. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,491,552 and 1,651,307. It is also known to provide auxiliary electrical equipment for automobiles which may be plugged into the vehicle's cigarette lighter.
The foregoing expedients are not satisfactory for many purposes. It is a nuisance to clip and unclip the equipment directly to the battery and, so far as concerns use of the cigarette lighter, the power available is limited by the capacity of the circuit which provides electricity to the lighter and the connection must be made within the vehicle whereas the auxiliary equipment to be powered will normally be located outside the vehicle.
The object of the invention is to provide an adapter unit which may be clipped to a storage battery, the unit providing suitable receptacles for accepting standard plugs or special plugs of auxiliary equipment and circuit interrupting means to guard against overloads.